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In role-playing games, permanent death (often permadeath or PD) is a situation in which player characters that die are permanently and are removed from the game and may no longer be used to play.〔"Never-to-return death is called permanent death or PD." (Bartle 2003, p416)〕 Less common terms with the same meaning are ''persona death'' and ''player death''.〔"Some old-timers prefer the expansion persona death. Exceedingly old-timers might even use player death, but at least we're trying to break the habit." (Bartle 2003, p416)〕 Games without permanent death may allow characters who are killed to be resurrected to a playable state, with this action often costing resources or undoing progress the player has made. Permanent death is commonly a component of roguelike role-playing games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), although it is sometimes used in discussions of the mechanics of non-electronic role-playing games. Ewen Hosie of IGN states that though action games frequently employ this gameplay element, it carries no emotional weight. Game developer Andrew Douall identifies permanent death as a pillar of roguelike game design. According to Hosie, the roguelike ''Dwarf Fortress'' "does () even allow the player to win in any traditional sense".〔 Implementations may vary widely. Casual forms of permanent death may allow players to retain money or items while introducing repercussions for failure. This can reduce the frustration associated with permanent death. More hardcore implementations delete all progress made. In some games, permanent death is an optional mode or feature of higher difficulty levels. Extreme forms of permanent death may further punish players, such as ''The Castle Doctrine'', which has the option of permanently banning users from servers upon death. Gamers may prefer to play games with permanent death for the excitement, the desire to test their skill or understanding of the game's mechanics, or out of boredom with standard game design. When their actions have repercussions, they must make more strategic and tactical decisions. At the same time, games using permanent death may encourage players to rely on emotional, intuitive or other non-deductive decision-making as they attempt, with less information, to minimize the risk to characters with which they have bonded. Games using permanent death more closely simulate real life. Games with a strong narrative element frequently avoid permanent death.〔 ==In multiplayer video games== Permanent death in multiplayer video games is controversial.〔"It's (death is ) the single most controversial subject in virtual worlds." (Bartle 2003, p415)〕 Due to player desires and the resulting market forces involved, MMORPGs (such as ''World of Warcraft'') and other multiplayer-focused RPGs rarely feature permanent death. Generally speaking, there is little support in multiplayer culture for permanent death.〔"Existing virtual world culture is anti-PD." (Bartle 2003, p444)〕 Richard Bartle has compared player distaste for permadeath to player distaste for pedophilia.〔"Dr. Bartle finally interrupted the conversation by trying to bring the conversation back to a player's perspective: 'Do you want permadeath or pedophilia? Both seem equally attractive to most players.'" (Quote is on (second page ))〕 For games which charge an ongoing fee to play, permanent death may drive players away, creating a financial disincentive to include permanent death.〔"The most frequently cited reason against permadeath is, of course, player investment, which put succinctly says, 'We never want to give players a reason to stop paying us $10 bucks a month.' … Due to the intricate coding complexities and the… unique nature of sharing a space with other players, it’s hard enough to prevent these catastrophic events from occurring. Why on earth would we want to give you a choice as to whether or not to start a new character, or cancel your account altogether?" (Schubert 2005)〕〔"Not only will they () say they'll leave when it (character death ) happens, some of them actually will leave." (Bartle 2003, p424)〕 ''Terraria'', ''Diablo II'' and ''Diablo III'' are mainstream exceptions which include support for an optional "hardcore" mode that subjects characters to permanent death. ''Sacred'' and ''Sacred 2'' similarly feature or have featured a similar "hardcore" mode. ''Star Wars Galaxies'' had permadeath for Jedi characters for a short period, but later eliminated that functionality.〔"For a few months, one type of "Star Wars" character, the rare and powerful Jedi, could be permanently killed. But when players began singling out Jedi characters for vicious attacks, Jedi players cried out for help, and last month LucasArts abandoned permadeath, a company spokeswoman said." (Glater 2004)〕 Proponents attribute a number of reasons why others oppose permanent death. Some attribute tainted perceptions to poor early implementations.〔"This is primarily due to imperfect early implementations and bad customers service decisions; nevertheless, the legacy is there." (Bartle 2003, p444)〕 They also believe that confusion exists between "player killing" and permanent death, when the two do not need to be used together.〔"Many of the benefits that advocates of PKing cite are primarily due to PD; some of the strongest objections to PKing are due to its PvP element, rather than to PD." (Bartle 2003, p416)〕 Proponents also believe that players initially exposed to games without permanent death consider new games from that point of view.〔"If they () began with a virtual world that had no PD, they'll judge your virtual world from that standpoint." (Bartle 2003, p424)〕 Those players are attributed as eventually "maturing," to a level of accepting permanent death, but only for other players' characters.〔"Even if they are 'mature enough' for PD, they're () attitude is analogous to the way that people in the real world view public transport. … So it is with PD: It's fine when it happens to you, but not so fine when it happens to me. (Bartle 2003, p424)〕 The majority of MMORPG players are unwilling to accept the penalty of losing their characters. MMORPGs have experimented with permanent death in an attempt to simulate a more realistic world, but a majority of players preferred not to risk permanent death for their characters. As a result, while MMORPGs are occasionally announced that feature permanent death, most either remove or never ship permanent death so as to increase the game's mass appeal.〔"Certain high level monsters would also have the ability to perma-kill a player character. () In retrospect, though, that one just seems crazy." (【引用サイトリンク】 Whatever Happened to Middle-Earth Online? (Part 2 - The Bellevue Months) )〕 Proponents of permanent death claim the risk of permadeath gives additional significance to their in-game actions. While games without permanent death often impose an in-game penalty for restoring a dead PC, the penalty is relatively minor compared to being forced to create a new PC. Therefore, the primary change in experience permanent death creates is that it makes a player's decisions more significant; without permanent death there is less incentive for the player to consider in-game actions seriously.〔"Then, the fact that the whole experience (without permanent death ) is vacuous begins to nag at them." (Bartle 2003, p431)〕 Those players seeking to risk permanent death feel that the more severe consequences heighten the sense of involvement and achievement derived from their characters.〔"By having a strong death penalty, such as permadeath based on life points, then one feels the thrill of battle and exuberance of a battle won." (【引用サイトリンク】 A Case for a Permadeath Server )〕〔"Without PD (it can also mean "permadeath"), there's no sense of achievement in a game." (Bartle, "Column 2")〕 The increased risk renders acts of heroism and bravery within the gameworld significant; the player has risked a much larger investment of time. Without permanent death, such actions are "small actions."〔"Without PD, 'small actions' are steps on a treadmill and 'done well' means you move slightly faster than people who have 'done badly.' Heroism is no such thing—it's just another example of a 'small action.'" (Bartle 2003, p431)〕 However, in an online game, permadeath generally means starting over from the beginning, isolating the player of the now-dead character from former comrades. Richard Bartle called out as advantages of permanent death: restriction of early adopters from permanently held positions of power,〔"In virtual worlds (permanent death ), this is called ''sandboxing'' — the people who are first to positions of power keep them. There is no opportunity for change." (Bartle 2003, p426)〕 content reuse as players repeat early sections,〔"In a virtual world with no PD, you only get to experience a body of content once." (Bartle 2003, p427)〕 its embodiment of the "default fiction of real life", improved player immersion from more frequent character changes, and reinforcement of high level achievement.〔Bartle summarizes these points in 〕 Bartle also believes that in the absence of permanent death, game creators must continually create new content for top players, which discourages those not at the top from even bothering to advance.〔Powerful PCs aren't retired because "That (the PC ), however, is too much like PD for many players to stomach." To satisfy these players, additional high end content is continuously added. When this is done, "Newbies (and not-so-newbies) feel they can never catch up. The people in front will always be in front, and there's no way to overtake them. The horizon advances at the speed you approach it." (Bartle 2003, p426)〕 Proponents of permanent death systems in MMORPGs are a relatively small sub-section of the hardcore gaming community. These players are often interested in additional challenges provided by games that attempt greater realism in their simulation. These players will often seek less-restricted social and economic environments catering to a greater range of player-versus-player interaction and risk-versus-reward scenarios. Those players who prefer not to play with permanent death are unwilling to accept the risk of the large penalties associated with it. Paying the penalty of permanent death often means a great deal of time spent to regain levels, power, influence, or emotional investment that the previous character possessed. This increased investment of time can dissuade non-hardcore players.〔"It (death ) leaves no room for error, and the tension of the game kills the enjoyment for casual gamers." 〕 Depending on the design of the game, this may involve playing through content that the player has already experienced. Players no longer interested in those aspects of the game will not want to spend time playing through them again in the hope of reaching others to which they previously had access. Players may dislike the way that permanent death causes others to be more wary than they would in regular games, reducing the heroic atmosphere that games seek to provide.〔"The more harsh your death penalties are, the less likely that your player base will take risks and interesting chances." (Schubert 2005)〕 Ultimately this can reduce play to slow, repetitive, low-risk play, commonly called "grinding".〔"And just like that, your game is considered grindalicious, as your players bore themselves to death." (Schubert 2005)〕 Of course, the significance of heroism without the risk of permanent death is dramatically reduced. Most MMORPGs do not allow character creation at an arbitrary experience level, even if the player has already achieved that level with a now-dead character, providing a powerful disincentive for permanent death. Permadeath guilds may exist in multiplayer games without permadeath as a feature, such as Dungeons & Dragons Online. Players voluntarily delete their characters based on the honor system. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Permanent death」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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